Top Taiwan prosecutor targeted by Chinese hackers

A top Taiwanese prosecutor in charge of probing several major scandals, including a Chinese spy case, has been targeted by cyber-attacks from China, a report said Wednesday.

Chinese hackers have obtained confidential information from the home computer of Huang Mo-hsin, a chief prosecutor at the Taipei district prosecutor’s office, on at least four top cases, said Next magazine.

Among the cases was that of an alleged spy for China in Taiwan’s presidential office as well as a diplomatic scandal implicating former president Chen Shui-bian’s right-hand man Chiou I-jen, it said.

The weekly cited unnamed sources as saying that the National Security Bureau first spotted the cyber-attacks in June and instructed that Huang’s computer be reprogrammed to stem any further leak of information.

The prosecutor’s office was not immediately available for comment.

The report came after the bureau said Monday it was targeted by nearly half a million cyber-attacks a month, only a minority from China and around 60 percent from the island itself.

In the 10 months to October, Chinese hackers launched 598,000 attacks, or 12 percent of a total of 4.99 million attacks, while six in 10 attacks came from within the island.

Taiwan’s government websites have frequently come under cyber-attack from China, usually during disputes between the island and the mainland.

The two sides split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, but Beijing still claims the island as part of its territory.

But ties have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou became Taiwan’s president in 2008 on a Beijing-friendly platform.